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If Calgary could now do that same kind of deal, this time sending the 35-year-old Iginla somewhere for a prospect the same quality he was back then, the rebuilding project that should have started two years ago would be truly underway.

But will that kind of deal be available for the Flames?

It seems doubtful, very doubtful.

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For starters, Iginla’s list of teams he will waive his no-trade clause for is only four deep. Of those teams — Chicago, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles and Boston — three don’t have a teenage prospect equal to what Iginla was 18 years ago.

Boston has Dougie Hamilton and Tyler Seguin, but they’re playing for the Bruins right now. Malcolm Subban? Alexander Khoklachev? Sure, but that’s a different level of quality entirely.

Los Angeles had first rounders like Brayden Schenn, Colton Teubert and Thomas Hickey but traded them all away. The Blackhawks don’t have an Iginla-level prospect. Pittsburgh has defence prospect Derrick Pouliot, taken eighth overall last summer, but the Pens have already moved blueliner Joe Morrow to Dallas and two second-rounders to San Jose to acquire Brenden Morrow and Douglas Murray, respectively.

You can see the problem Calgary has.

Moreover, in the salary cap world that didn’t exist when the Nieuwendyk-Iginla deal happened, young prospects have more value now because they come with great cap flexibility. If you move one for a pure rental — like Pitt did in the Morrow-squared deal — you better have others in the system and you better hang on to them.

So a single gem for Iginla seems unlikely.

Instead, Calgary has to probably go with the many-pieces-for-one type of deal, the kind of swap Columbus did to move Rick Nash to the Big Apple, receiving Brandon Dubinsky, Artem Anisimov, defence prospect Tim Erixon and a first-rounder in return. The Blue Jackets are better, sure, but not really because of the three former Rangers; the first-round pick will likely be the most valuable piece, particularly if Columbus lucks out and the stumbling Rangers miss the playoffs.

Another layer to the challenge facing Calgary GM Jay Feaster, meanwhile, is that there isn’t a team out there that could add Iginla and immediately be seen as the favourite to win the Stanley Cup.

That’s because Iginla isn’t Iginla anymore. In fact, he’s not even the highest scoring winger on the Flames. He’s 35 with lots of miles of him.

What he could be is a solid addition, a depth scorer, a player who might come up with a big moment or two in a long post-season drive. He could be to a team what Mark Recchi was for Boston when the Bruins beat Vancouver to win the Cup.

That’s something, for sure. But what’s it worth?

This, folks, is how boxed in Calgary is on a potential Iginla trade.

Had Feaster moved on this last year, and a team could have bought Iginla with a year left on his deal, the returns could have been significantly greater.

But the GM didn’t and Iginla doesn’t.

If the Flames have anything going for them in terms of getting a big return on Iginla, it’s that five or six or more teams can realistically say they have a shot at the Cup, and Iginla is, right now at least, the only marquee forward out there. That could change, of course, if Tampa decides to put Marty St. Louis on the market, or if the Sharks finally decide time is up for Patrick Marleau and Joe Thornton.

It’s not an exact comparable by any means, but at the deadline two years ago the Maple Leafs dealt 12-year veteran defenceman Tomas Kaberle, then 32 and in the last year of his contract, to Boston for prospect Joe Colborne, a first-round pick (in the bottom third of the first round) and a conditional second. Kaberle didn’t play particularly well in Boston, but he did get a ring.

Iginla, obviously, has had a greater career than Kaberle, and he’s a forward. But he’s also three years older than Kaberle. So that seems to be the logical kind of package the Flames can reasonably expect, particularly in the light of the Morrow-for-Morrow deal. Perhaps if it’s again Boston, maybe something built around Subban could make sense.

Still, it won’t be a home run and it won’t deliver a new franchise player to Calgary as did the trading of Nieuwendyk back in ’95.

But it will be something.

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